(a) Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a device for connecting welding wires for CO2 gas welding. More particularly, the present invention relates to a device for connecting welding wires for CO2 gas welding that may connect an old wire and a new wire.
(b) Description of the Related Art
Generally, CO2 gas welding is a semi-automatic or automatic arc welding process in which a continuous and consumable wire electrode and a shielding gas (CO2) are fed for insulating a welding portion from air.
Particularly, when a welding gun does not reach a welding portion due to a complicated vehicle body structure and so on, the CO2 gas welding process may be applied, and an automatic welding process with a robot also applies the CO2 gas welding.
FIG. 1 is a drawing showing a conventional CO2 gas welding apparatus. As shown in FIG. 1, in general CO2 gas welding process, a welding torch 105 is mounted to an arm 103 of a robot 101, and a welding wire 109 is supplied to the welding torch 105 from a wire drum 107 through a supplying line 115.
The welding torch 105 is connected to a CO2 gas tank 111 through a gas line 113, and CO2 gas is supplied to the welding torch 105 then discharged to the welding portion.
The welding torch 105 is connected to a CO2 gas welding machine 110 to be supplied welding electric power.
In the CO2 gas welding process, welding quality is influenced by a matching state of the welding wire 109 and the welding portion, wire supplying speed, appropriate current and voltage adjusting, and so on.
During the CO2 gas welding, if the welding wire 109 within the wire drum 107 is completely used and the welding process is continued without preparation of complete exhaustion of the welding wire 109, productivity may be deteriorated due to having to restart the welding process, and faulty products may be generated.
Due to the problem, even if a large capacity wire drum for the welding wire 109 is used, in the mega-factory the welding wire replacement process is a burden.
Particularly, in the conventional art, when the welding wire 109 within the wire drum 107 is almost exhausted, residual welding wire 109 is replaced by a new welding wire 109 and the residual welding wire 109 is discarded to prevent the above problems.
Thus, replacement of the old welding wire 109 may increase unnecessary consumption of welding wire and welding cost.
The above information disclosed in this Background section is only for enhancement of understanding of the background of the invention and therefore it may contain information that does not form the prior art that is already known in this country to a person of ordinary skill in the art.